On October 22-25, 2018, Major Superiors and Provincial Delegates of the Conventual Franciscan FEMO Federation met in Brno, in the Czech Republic. The Assistant General for the FEMO, Friar Jacek CIUPIŃSKI, was also present from Rome.
Members of the Federatio Europae Mediae et Orientalis (FEMO) include: Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Russia, the Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The participants summarized the work done at the Extraordinary General Chapter held in Italy this year, and made several decisions concerning ongoing formation for the religious of their Jurisdictions.
Since the Provinces in Poland will be celebrating their Ordinary Provincial Chapters in 2020, the formation courses scheduled for the next two years will be merged. Confreres who made their solemn vows in 2009 and 2010 will meet July 8-25, 2019, in Harmęże, Poland. At the same time, friars who made their solemn vows in 1994 and 1995 will meet in Łódź-Lagiewniki, Poland.
The preparation period for perpetual profession commonly known as the “second novitiate” will take place in Lubomierz near Mszana Dolna, Poland, in September of 2019.
The Provincial and Custodial Superiors have also received word that the Postulator General, Friar Damian-Gheorghe PĂTRAŞCU will organize a course to train friars in how to prepare the procedures for causes of beatification and canonization in their own Jurisdictions. He will also talk about what is needed to spread the cults of saints and those who are blessed. The first meeting for this area will take place on March 11-14, 2019, in Brehov, Slovakia.
The Superiors then proposed the names of friars to serve as translators and lay-brother delegates at the next Ordinary General Chapter. The General Chapter will be held next year in Assisi and Collevalenza, in Italy.
They also planned a meeting regarding the new General Statutes. It will be held April 23-26, 2019, in Niepokalanów-Lasek, Poland.
Finally, the Assistant General asked the Federation for material support for the poorer Jurisdictions of the Order.
The participants also made a pilgrimage to the Shrine in Velehrad, Moravia (the Czech Republic).
The next meeting of the Federation will be held from October 21-26, 2019, in Bołszowce in the Ukraine.
Friar Leszek M. ŁUCZKANIN, FEMO Secretary /
Friar Jan M. SZEWEK, Spokesman for the Province of Cracow
